Smith: A massive Trempealeau County buck taken in October is likely to become the state crossbow record
It dawned dark Oct. 28 along the banks of the Trempealeau River in western Wisconsin.
The bluffs to the east always delay the sunrise anyway. And a thick overcast sky, with rain likely on the way, muffled this day's first light even more.
Not that Kevin Christorf of Abbotsford minded. In fact as he paddled his canoe across the river to reach his hunting stand, he was in favor of all the stealth he could muster.
With white-tailed deer activity at a high level as the rut, or breeding season, neared its peak, the last week of October was Kevin's favorite time to be in the Wisconsin outdoors.
But as he glided toward shore he heard two sounds that made his heart sink.
A deer snorted to the west. Then corn stalks rustled as it ran for cover in an adjacent farm field.
"I thought 'that might have been him,'" said Kevin, 32, retelling the hunt Friday. "It sounded very big."
"Him" referred to a massive white-tailed deer locals nicknamed Hector. The 13-pointer had been documented on trail cameras for at least the last couple years in southwest Trempealeau County.
And both Kevin and his wife, Bayli, had seen the buck in October while bowhunting on the five-acre parcel owned by Bayli's father.
Now it was possible Kevin spooked the deer right out of the gate that Thursday morning.
There are thousands of variables when it comes to hunting. But there is also one universal truth: you can't succeed if you don't go.
Kevin knew rain was in the forecast and he might have just ruined his chance at the big buck. But even after two consecutive sunup to sundown sits without a shot he was determined to see what this day would hold.
He stashed the canoe on a grassy shore and quietly walked 50 yards to the big oak that held his tree stand. Then he climbed 25 feet up, double-checked his safety harness and began the waiting, watching and listening bowhunters know so well.
Kevin and Bayli are avid deer hunters who dedicate a large portion of their time each year to scouting and hunting.
They especially like to hunt on the parcel owned by Bayli's father. It's small and hard to access but includes a narrow band, or funnel, along the river that is heavily used by wildlife.
To top it off, the neighboring landowners are extremely friendly and have cultivated a spirit of cooperation among the local hunting community, Kevin said.
"We've gotten texts with trail cam images of bucks from people who live more than a mile from our hunting spot," Kevin said. "It's really awesome they want to share and help everybody."
This year reports of Hector began to crop up in summer and in August Kevin and Bayli obtained trail cam images of the buck near their treestands.
It was the kind of whitetail that causes hunters to lose sleep.
"All we knew he was the biggest any of us had ever seen," Kevin said.
But when the crossbow and archery seasons opened in September, Hector vanished.
The buck could have moved to another area, of course. Deer don't get to be 6½ or 7½ years old (as Hector was estimated to be) without excellent survival instincts.
Weeks passed with no sightings or photos when, bingo, in mid-October the buck was captured again on a trail cam on the five acres along the river.
Kevin and Bayli, who are both Wisconsin state employees, took additional vacation days to try their luck.
The couple's persistence started to pay off. Late in the afternoon Oct. 23 Bayli saw the animal live for the first time. She grunted at the buck, which momentarily stopped but then continued walking south and out of shooting range.
The next day Kevin saw it, too, and well within shooting range. This time Hector came stomping in to push out a small buck that had just made a rub. But it was 4 minutes after the close of shooting time.
Bayli again saw it a couple days later. But Hector stayed in a cornfield to the northwest on the neighboring property.
"I thought our luck might have run out," Kevin said.
Last Thursday Bayli was working so Kevin set out his own.
After the encounter with the deer in the early morning gloom he was perched high in the oak. By 7 a.m. the sky had lightened a bit; it was 36 degrees with a light southeast wind.
At about 7:35 Kevin heard corn rustling from the west. He turned to look and to his amazement saw a very large whitetail buck moving along a trail 75 yards away: It was Hector.
"I was thinking, man, if he keeps coming through that pinchpoint and into the woods, there's a 50-50 chance he'll come right below me," Kevin said.
The buck did keep coming. But not all the way.
"Wouldn't you know it, he was downwind and stopped on a dime and started stomping," Kevin said. "It was the worst feeling. He stopped 10 yards from where I could take a good, clean shot."
The buck then walked back toward the river where Kevin had stashed the canoe.
Kevin fully expected the deer to smell it and take off.
But in a hunter's miracle, the whitetail instead sniffed the paddleboat and, like a bloodhound, tracked Kevin's footsteps all the way to his tree stand.
The big buck then stood directly beneath Kevin, looked up, and licked a tree peg.
"I'm like, this can't be happening," Kevin said. "A deer of this caliber is going to take off."
The buck took a couple of steps away from the tree, head up and nose working.
Kevin seized the opportunity and settled the sights of his crossbow on the deer's vitals and squeezed the trigger.
The bolt hit its target and the buck ran out of sight. Kevin heard a crash, then silence.
He called his wife, then his father and then a neighbor who also hunts the area.
"I was shaking so bad I didn't know if I could climb out of the tree," Kevin said.
Within an hour the neighbor came out to the property and helped track the deer. A heavy blood trail made it an easy task.
About 85 yards away they found the buck.
"I dropped my crossbow and we tackled each other," Kevin said. "The deer was even bigger than I thought."
The men then began the work of gutting, dragging and transporting the deer across the river without tipping the canoe.
It was no easy feat; the buck weighed 233 pounds, field dressed, when taken in at Falls Meat in Pigeon Falls.
Just how big the deer's antlers are became clear over the next couple days.
The 13-pointer is a typical main frame 12 with about a 2-inch claw tine on its left antler. It has a 19-inch inside spread.
It has been scored four times, including by Kevin and a certified scorer.
"The first time I scored it, I was like, we must have made a mistake," Kevin said. "But no, I guess we were right."
The green score on the buck is 200⅝ gross and 196⅞ net, in an elite range for whitetails taken by any means and making it nearly a sure bet to be the Wisconsin record for a typical buck taken with a crossbow. The record now is about 16 inches less.
Kevin said even more impressive than the antlers is the reaction he's received from Trempealeau County hunters and landowners.
"They seem happier for me than they would be if they shot the deer," Kevin said. "I've been around enough to know it can be the other way. But this has been a really positive experience and there's been an outpouring of support and camaraderie."
One area hunter sent Kevin and Bayli a trail cam photo of Hector from 2019. The buck's antlers looked almost identical to this year.
The deer's head is at a taxidermist who will make a pedestal mount and also use the jaw to age it. Most people think the buck was at least 6½ years old, Kevin said.
"Hopefully he bred a lot and has a lot of offspring in the area," Kevin said. "I still feel like I'm dreaming. But I look at these photos and, well, it's a once in a lifetime buck, that's for sure. I feel very fortunate."
The reality is likely to sink in further as the story is told and retold across the hunting world and, in a deer hunting custom, the whitetail some called Hector becomes known far and wide as the Christorf buck.
Crossbow records
Use of crossbows has soared in Wisconsin since state law changed in 2013 to allow all legal hunters, regardless of physical ability or age, to use the equipment to hunt white-tailed deer.
By the 2017-18 hunting season, the number of deer registered by crossbow users surpassed that taken by archers (vertical bow users). The number of crossbow record-book entries increased, too.
The state record typical whitetail taken by crossbow is a 179⅞-inch buck killed in 2015 in La Crosse County by Chia Vang, according to the Wisconsin Buck and Bear Club. Second is a 179⅛-incher taken in 2010 in Waukesha County by Jimmy Spataro.
Christorf's buck must dry for 60 days before it can be officially measured. But since shrinkage is typically minimal and the rack has already been green-scored by experienced scorers at 196 inches net the deer is expected to be assume the top spot in Wisconsin crossbow records come late December.
For comparison, the Wisconsin records for typical bucks taken by other means are 206⅛ for gun (James Jordan in 1914 in Burnett County) and 192⅝ for archery (Charles Bocook in 2018 in Columbia County), according to WBBC.
The records for non-typical racks, which commonly have many more and asymmetrical points, represent gross totals and are higher than typicals. The Wisconsin non-typical deer records are 253 for gun (Elmer Gotz in 1973 in Buffalo County), 221⅞ inches for crossbow (Gary Benrud in 2019 in La Crosse County) and 249⅝ for archery (Jim Baker in 2013 in Waukesha County).
The biggest non-typical by other means was a "pick-up" head collected in 2020 in Rock County by shed hunter Nate Olsen. It scored 250¾.
To review all Wisconsin deer records, visit Wisconsin Buck & Bear Club at wi-buck-bear.org.
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This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Trempealeau County buck likely to be Wisconsin crossbow record
